GNOME turns 20 year old, Happy Birthday GNOME

On 15th August 2017, GNOME project has completed 20 years in it's journey. The project was founded by Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena Quintero on August 15, 1997. Over the years, GNOME has become an inseparable part of free software community.

GNOME (Initially, acronym for GNU Network Object Model Environment was started as independent window manager for GNU/Linux and other Unix like operating system. Initially, it was a part of GNU (GNU is Not Unix). Later it has evolved as independent GNOME Foundation with support from different people. The GNOME Foundation has full time employees and volunteers from community to run it's day to day activities.

The GNOME 1.x was a pretty basic window manager which was looking very ugly, when we look back today. Though it was able to serve the purpose of a graphical user interface. GNOME 2.x made an evolution by introducing Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). In GNOME 2.x all of the applications were adhering to consistent design standards to support productivity. GNOME 2.x ruled the desktops for more than 10 years. GNOME 3.x / GNOME shell was another phase of evolution. It introduced a modern GUI to the GNU/Linux world. Initially, it was criticized owing to it's lack of functionality and features. Later, GNOME shell has improved a lot and has captured a larger user base.

There have been 33 stable releases since the initial release of GNOME 1.0 in 1999. The latest stable release, GNOME 3.24 “Portland,” was
well-received. “Portland” included exciting new features like the GNOME
Recipes application and Night Light, which helps users avoid eyestrain.
The upcoming version of GNOME 3.26 “Manchester,” is scheduled for
release in September of this year. With over 6,000 contributors, and 8
million lines of code, the GNOME Project continues to thrive in its
twentieth year.

For participating in GNOME birthday celebrations or to organize your own celebrations, follow links given in GNOME blog.